QUEEN OF AMBITION

Ursula Blanchard, Lady of the Queen's Person and undercover agent, seeks the riddle and hidden motives behind the playlet that is to be performed during the Queen's Progress to Cambridge University in the 1560s. As Lady Blanchard poses as a pie shoppe maid, she seeks out mystery and motive amid the common and high folk of Cambridge. Josephine Bailey flawlessly narrates with gentle voice, educated British accents, and coarse lower-caste pronunciations, while keeping the action flowing. Details of dress, attitude, and deduction are sprinkled liberally between a murder plot and Elizabethan political history. Buckley paints a vivid picture of life in Elizabeth's England during her long and glorious reign. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]